The Alpha Centauri Mystery - Part 10 - "Out of the Frying Pan..." by Ben
Versteegt
Summary:
It seems as if everybody in the Alpha quadrant is after some mysterious
samples, which emit radiation that, so it seems, happens to be an incredible
source of power. Ensign Sandra Burke, who carried the samples, beamed over
to the USS Aquinas after her base in the Alpha Centauri system was attacked
and destroyed. The Aquinas had to flee from a Prometheus class Starfleet
vessel, who was firing at her to obtain the samples. Finally, in a desperate
attempt to slow down their enemy, and when the Aquinas was forced to drop
out of warp, Captain Ayer ordered Chief Engineer Zjavick to eject the warp
core and detonate it.
The warp core detonated, resulting in an explosion that tore the ship apart.
Now, the Engineering section and the saucer section are separated from each
other by the force of the shockwave, and the ship is in ruins. Not only is
the damage irreparable and the death toll immense, but Sandra has also
disappeared... she has been transported to the Prometheus class ship, where
she has been drugged and subjected to the interrogation of a Captain without
mercy...
And now the continuation...
Ayer and Watters were, so it seemed, the only ones from the Bridge crew who
had survived the tearing apart of the ship by the shockwave. Zaag was on the
Bridge as well. They had completed their gruesome task of identifying the
bodies, at least on the Bridge. Only Zaag was checking an Operation officer
for lifesigns. It was a young Ensign, probably just out of the Academy. "To
die like this on your first mission," Zaag said softly. "It's horrible."
He was still worrying about Sandra, but worrying got him nowhere. They first
had to assess all the damage and plan what they were going to do next. It
wouldn't be an easy task. Most systems were offline, but an emergency beacon
could probably be activated. But even though they were deep in Federation
space, help would most likely not arrive within six hours. It was as Ayer
had said earlier; the Federation was weak. Starfleet had lost a lot of
ships, and most of the ships that they had now were assigned to patrol the
borders of Federation space.
"Six hours..." Zaag said to himself. "Far too much can happen in six hours.
That other ship might come back." He examined the Ensign, who wasn't moving.
"Poor kid."
Suddenly, he was grabbed by the arm. Startled, he pulled himself loose and
stood up. It was the Ensign he was examining. It turned out he wasn't quite
dead yet. His blood-covered face turned towards Zaag, and with great
difficulty, he spoke. "Help... me. Please..."
"Captain!" Zaag yelled to Ayer. The latter took a few brisk paces and
arrived at the Operations station. He knelt down next to the Ensign.
"Ensign Mill," Ayer said in a soft, gentle tone of voice. "How are you
feeling?"
Mill's eyes widened. He was obviously in a lot of pain. He grabbed the
Captain by the shoulder and pulled himself up a little. It might as well
have been a whole marathon for him, because it looked like this task was too
much for the poor Ensign. He was hurt too bad.
He tried to speak, but all that came out of his mouth was blood. It ran down
his chin and drops of the red substance fell to the ground, producing a
stain on the Ensign's already stained uniform. Blood was everywhere. It
wasn't a pretty sight to look at.
"Captain..." the Ensign finally managed to get out. He tried to move, but
winced in pain. He strained to turn his head around, and was even able to do
so. Zaag and Captain Ayer now saw why Ensign Mill was in such pain, besides
the reason that he had burn marks all over his body. There was a large piece
of glass, roughly 10 centimetres, stuck in the back of his head. It was in
deep. Zaag reached out to remove the piece of glass, which had come loose
from one of the exploding consoles, but Ayer put his free hand on the
Ferengi's arm, and shook his head.
Mill clearly was in agony, as he turned back to face Ayer. "Captain," he
said again. His grip on Ayer's arm intensified. He squeezed his hand tighter
to prevent slipping away. The Ensign just stared at Ayer, with blood still
coming out of his mouth in irregular, vomiting bursts. "Help..." Mill said,
accompanied by more blood out of his mouth and nose.
Ayer felt the grip on his arm become looser. Ensign Mill was loosing
strength rapidly. "Ensign, stay with us!" Ayer said urgently. He looked at
Zaag, who was scanning the Ensign with his tricorder.
"We're losing him!" he shouted. His tricorder sent out rapid bleeps that
gave Ayer the same message.
"Damnit Ensign, keep yourself together!" Ayer tried to shout, although it
came out as an urgent whisper. "That's an order!"
Ensign Mill didn't comply. With one last sound, that was supposed to be a
sigh but that was muffled and altered by the blood in the Ensign's throat,
Mill passed out, never to wake up again.
The tricorder gave a single, long high-pitched tone. "It's over," Zaag said
with a lump in his throat. "He's dead."
Ayer was visibly shocked, and kept staring at the body of the dead Ensign.
"He was a brilliant student at the Academy," he said finally, as he still
kept his eyes fixed on Ensign Mill. "He had the potential to become a great
officer." He closed his eyes and turned his face away. Tears rolled down his
cheeks and fell onto the ground. "I promised his mother I would look after
him..." his voice had been reduced to a soft whisper, filled with tears.
Sobbing, he just sat there on the floor. Finally managing to get a hold of
himself, he took a deep breath and stood up. He wiped away his tears as
discretely as he could. "Well, I guess I failed in that too."
He turned around to Zaag and Watters. "It would seem we have finished
identifying the dead bodies," he said dryly. The Ferengi and the STC could
very well see that this whole experienced hadn't left Ayer untouched,
though. "Any suggestions as to how we should proceed?"
"Our first priority should be to find a way to send a distress call to
Starfleet," Watters suggested. "The ship's transponder is off line, we
currently have no means to launch a buoy, and communications are down. But
we should be able to put a few of the emergency transponders in the escape
pods together to rig a..."
The Captain was shaking his head. "No," he said. "If we send out a distress
call, there's a good chance the Prometheus class ship finds out we're alive,
and returns to finish the job. And in case you've forgotten, Lieutenant,
we're in no shape to face another attack right now."
"But sir," protested Watters. "They've already got what they want. Their
goal wasn't to destroy the ship, but to get the samples, any way they
could." he paused, and took a step forward, all the time looking the Captain
straight into the eyes. "You're right, sir," he continued. "We're in pretty
bad shape. But let's face it; it can't get much worse than this."
"They could blow us up if they find us," Zaag intervened.
"If we stay here and do nothing, we'll run out of air," Watters argued.
"Then we'll die as well."
The Captain seemed to be convinced, but still thought it was a bad idea.
"Fine then. Send out your damned distress call." He walked to the other side
of the Bridge and began to tap a console violently.
"Sir... what are you doing?" asked Watters.
"I'm *trying* to get communications back," Ayer said, irritated by the STC.
"I want to know how many of the crew we have lost. And I want to get
whoever's left of the senior staff together on the Bridge for a staff
meeting. It's about time we get off our butts and finally take some action."
Watters said nothing. He knew it was pointless to continue a conversation
with the Captain at this point. Ayer was, maybe more than everyone else,
deeply troubled by the loss of the Aquinas. It was his ship, after all. But
now it wasn't a ship anymore. Ayer was in command of a large collection of
debris now.
"Sir, we may have to assume the worst," Watters said carefully. "Engineering
did bear the brunt of the shockwave. We have to account for the possibility
that Commander Zjavick and the other engineers are dead."
"I can't accept that, Commander," Ayer said fiercely as he turned around. "I
can't, and I won't accept that we're the only ones left. I will not accept,
ever," he said with a raised, voice, as he held up his finger. "that all of
my crew are dead."
Watters just nodded. It was understandable to him that the Captain reacted
this way. This ship, *his* ship, was completely in ruins. The Captain was
mourning... but this wasn't the time to mourn. "Captain. Please." The STC
walked towards Ayer. "Snap out of it, sir. You're no good to the rest of the
crew if you keep acting like this."
There was a long silence, as Captain Ayer swallowed and covered his eyes
with his left hand. He made some effort to wipe away his tears in a way that
the crew couldn't see it, but Zaag and Watters saw it anyway. Although they
couldn't imagine what the Captain was going through now that he had lost his
ship and most of the crew, they did understand how he felt about loosing a
great number of his shipmates - his friends.
Zaag broke the silence. "We will get through this, Captain. We have to. If
not for the samples, or for the crew, or even for this ship, then for
Sandra. We have to find a way to rescue her, to get her back. We cannot just
sit here, arguing amongst each other about what action to take. It's time to
get moving, and show the bastards who did this to us that there are still
people alive on this ship. Let's show them that we do not intend to allow
them to destroy our ship and leave it at that. Let's show them that we do
not stand by idly while a member of our crew has been abducted. Let's show
them that we, the remaining crew of the Starship Aquinas, will thwart their
every plan, and will do anything to get our crewmember back." His hands
formed fists, and for a moment it seemed as if the Ferengi was exploding in
rage. "We *will* get even with those low-life toothgrubs who did this to us,
Captain. And we will do it for Sandra."
Ayer couldn't help but show a smile. Zaag had shown an awful lot of spunk
for a Ferengi. But what made the Captain smile the most was the fact that
Zaag was speaking as if he were a part of the crew, when in fact he was only
just a passenger. "For Sandra," he repeated.
Taking a deep breath, the Captain regained his composure again. "All right,
here's what we'll do. Watters, you start working on sending out that
distress call. Zaag, you and I see if we can reach a shuttle. It should have
its own transmitter and transporter system. That should at least allow us to
reach Engineering - or what's left of it. Maybe there we can finally find
out how bashed up this ship is." He stopped for a moment to take a breath.
"Watters," he said, continuing to give orders. "Once you finished sending
out a distress call, start working on..."
He didn't get the chance to finish his sentence, as he was cut off by the
whining sound of a transporter. In just over a second, multiple green
transporterbeams had placed six Romulans on the Bridge of the Aquinas.
Before any of the remaining crew could react, the Romulans had already
surrounded them. Disruptors were quickly aimed at the two Starfleet officers
and the Ferengi.
Slowly, Ayer put his hands in the air, and gestured for Zaag and Watters to
follow his example. Then he spoke. His voice remained even and calm - he
probably realised things couldn't get any worse anymore. "I see the Romulans
have taken an interest in my humble vessel. I'm honoured by your visit. We
would give you a guided tour if it wasn't for the damage to the ship," he
said, not without irony in his voice. "I'm sorry, but you will have to
leave. This ship is in no condition to receive any visitors today."
The Romulan who seemed to be in charge took a large step forward and put his
disruptor against Ayer's head. "Do not play games with me, Captain," he said
in an angry, sinister and soft voice. "You have five seconds to give me the
samples... or I'll blow your head off."
Ayer swallowed. This wasn't looking good; they had no samples to give...
